No fresh backing for Agent Orange claims

There is no new evidence that Agent Orange was made in New Zealand or exported to the US military for use in the Vietnam War, the Government says.

Defence Minister Mark Burton yesterday released the official papers uncovered in a search of defence files.

The investigation was started after Kawerau veteran John Moller wrote to Attorney-General Margaret Wilson in October renewing the claim that the defoliant was made and exported to the US military.

Mr Burton said a 1989-90 parliamentary inquiry found that evidence to show Ivon Watkins Dow (now Dow AgroSciences) made and exported the agent was inconclusive.

The issue has received bouts of publicity since then, including in 1998 when the Herald and the Listener wrote about it in detail. The latest round of publicity came this month in the Sunday News.

It reported Government minister and New Plymouth MP Harry Duynhoven saying he had information the ingredients of Agent Orange were shipped from Taranaki in the 1960s to the American military base at Subic Bay in the Philippines for the war.

Mr Duynhoven later clarified that although he had been told of the shipments by residents in New Plymouth, he had not seen any evidence himself.

Dow AgroSciences has always denied making the agent here or shipping its components - 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D - to the US military.

Mr Burton said yesterday the Government would take a fresh look at the issue if new evidence arose.

The papers he released showed National cabinet ministers were "clearly enthusiastic" about supplying defoliants to the US military in 1967. The same papers were considered by the 1989-90 inquiry.

But Mr Burton said shipments did not happen because the amount that could be produced was deemed to be too little and transporting it was likely to cause problems.

"In the apparent absence of any new evidence, it seems that the 1989 select committee inquiry still provides the most comprehensive response to the question," he said.

Mr Moller said he would not give up and had a team looking in the US and Australia for evidence.

Mr Burton had not looked in the right places, he said. The evidence was more likely to be in overseas files or those of the former Department of Trade and Industry.